The Empty man
by squidgyalien
Summary: Travelling on your own puts a lot of strain on you...What happens when The Doctor investigates some strange readings on Earth, with no-one to hold his hand?
1. Chapter 1

**this is my first fan-fic ever! so do not laugh. Oh go on, if you have to. Anywhere, would really, really appreciate some feedback as i only have a slight idea where this is heading......stuff that. i just have no idea, so any help will be gladly received! **

**This is set between "the next doctor" and "planet of the dead"**

**Disclaimer: Yes i _know_ that i do not own Doctor Who, do you need to remind me?**

* * *

**The empty man**

**Chapter 1**

**All alone **

The darkness glided through space, not affected by the extreme cold or the vacuum that would have torn apart any corporeal being. If anyone had seen the darkness they might have mistaken it for a ball of dark gases, travelling at impossible speeds across the universe. But the darkness was not a ball of gas, nor was it a gaseous being. It was so much more. It headed in one direction, never slowing, not even when planets and stars barred the way. It just consumed them, leaving behind only a few dark specks of matter, the only reminder of what once occupied that region of space. The darkness does not even notice what its passing has done. It would not care if it did. Because it was after one thing. Just one. Only the darkness, being an intelligent being, knew that the only way to achieve what it wanted was not by destroying everything (at least, not yet), but to find one particular person, one man who could give it to the darkness.

The Doctor

And so the darkness searched the cosmos, looking for that one elusive Time lord among thousands of million, billion humanoid species. It would not fail. Then after a millennia of searching through space and across time. The darkness came across a planet that it knew the Doctor could be found.

Earth.

The darkness landed. And waited. Waited for the day when the doctor would surely arrive.

Just beyond Saturn, hiding from view from any of earth's satellites, a little blue box shimmered into existence, accompanied by a bellowing "whoomping," sound and the rhythmic flash of a blue light attached to the top of the impossible box. It looked very out of place among the rings of Saturn, but that was nothing compared to the inside of the box. Which was just _amazing. _Bigger on the inside then on the outside, the main console room of the Tardis glowed with a warm golden light, which seemed to come directly from the walls. In the centre of the room was the controlling heart of the Tardis, full of energy and just _brimming_ with the impression that it was capable of doing wonderful things. Around this console a tall, skinny and rather sharply, yet fashionably, dressed, young-looking man, was running about, haphazardly pulling at levers, pressing buttons and generally looking as if he didn't have the slightest idea what he was doing. He was also talking to himself, but to be fair he was probably one of the few in the universe who could _actually _understand what he was talking about…

"Weird. In fact that's _really_weird. Sub-atomic psychic energy, with seven different vectors in five different dimensions, not to mention a severe dose of highly unstable monochromatic radiation. Ohhh…now that's interesting, there's also a very strange reading on the Tungard scale," He squinted behind black-rimmed glasses and tapped at a screen with a long finger. " And it's on Earth, which is bad news if that radiation reading is anything to go by. It shouldn't be on Earth and it definitely, definitely, _definitely_ shouldn't be on Earth in that time frame, not that century. Maybe it needs checking out, what do you…?"

He stopped suddenly. Brought back to reality by the remembrance that he was on his own once again. All his boyish charm and vigour seemed to vanish in an instant, replaced by centuries of pain, guilt and heartbreak. The Doctor sighed heavily. That simple expression showing the depth of his sadness. He half-heartedly flicked a few more switches, no longer animated with the same energy as before.

"Allons-y" he murmured to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

_disclaimer; i wish i ndid own doctor who "sob"......please bbc! give me a chance!_

_Now i'm sad because i'm very happy about getting 2, yes you heard me, 2 reviews. So big thanks to "Xbakiyalo" or Anna, whatever you wanna be called,lol:) and "Phasmidfan" for making my day....._

_And look, i know that the start of this really doesn't make a lot of sense, but never does my brain ok?.....so enjoy!_

* * *

**The empty man**

**Chapter 2**

**Do you want to go to the seaside?**

Flavia sat on the beach, digging her feet in between the warm pebbles heated by the sun. She liked it here in the summer, it reminded her of home; hot, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. She frowned sadly to herself, mouth tightening at the edges. She missed Rome. Unfortunately, she didn't miss her older brother, who had taken it upon himself to check how the rest of his family were faring in the "barbarian" lands, as he liked to call it. Flavia just thought Octavius was an arrogant toad that liked to flaunt his so-called _achievements _and who enjoyed needling their father. Octavius always hated the fact that their father, Aurielius, was content with being a master architect in Britannia. _Nothing wrong with that_ thought Flavia, but Octavius felt that he would have been able to further his career to a greater extent if Aurielius had been part of the senate. _Idiot _Flavia thought crossly. Couldn't Octavius understand that their father didn't want that sort of life? The truth was that he didn't. He truly _couldn't _understand that Aurielius loved what he did; he _couldn't_ understand that a life in politics wasn't everyone's cup of mulled wine. Well that was his problem. She just wished he would stop inflicting it on everyone else.

"Flavia! Flavia," She could hear him calling her name from a distance. She ignored him. "Flavia! FLAVIA!" It wasn't working. Oh, for the love of Jupiter! Couldn't he leave her alone for one minute? She growled under her breath, and then turned in the direction of her brother's voice.

"Yes?" she said archly. Maybe if she acted really disdainful towards him he'd get the message and leave. He didn't.

"Flavia! There you are! I've been looking _everywhere_ for you, I need to have a word." He was scrambling down the beach, his portly, under-exercised body having trouble getting along the coast. His round face was wet with sweat and glowing red he looked like he was having some difficulty traversing the pebbles. Good, thought Flavia, you come to my haven; my secret haven and you pay.

"Talk about what?" she said innocently. She crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping that he would have forgotten. Or maybe at the very extreme end of the scale, he would fall over and break something. Like his nose. "Please, please, _please,"_ she whispered under her breath. Horrid, but entirely justified, as she had a feeling she knew what this would be about. And sure enough his first words once he had reached her, sat down and wiped his sweaty brow with the back of his hand, were, "Flavia, it's really time you got married,"

Erghh! She knew it! On and on, he just wouldn't give up the ridiculous idea of her getting married, especially seeing as it wasn't going to happen any time soon. The only guy even near her age was a total idiot and she was _not_ going to put herself through that! "Octavius, please! I have no intention of getting married now, maybe, when I'm older…" She hedged cautiously.

"When your older!" Octavius looked at her incredulously, squinting slightly in the afternoon sun. "Flavia, you must get this idea of marriage when you are older out of your mind," He shook his head sadly, as if _not_ being married at the age of sixteen was some awful crime. "It's unbecoming of you, if you wait too long you might never get married!" he exclaimed aghast, "by Jupiter, you might be like this for the rest of your life!" He looked so horrified, like it was some sort of tragedy. He glared at her and she realised that he expected an answer, or at the very least some indication that she was paying attention to his annoying waffle. She wasn't paying attention; she was imagining life without marriage. The independence to do what she wanted. It sounded a whole lot better than holy matrimony did. She decided that it was time to get Octavius out of her hair. "Oh! Octavius! I've just remembered, an important member of the senate is arriving today. I heard that he is a councillor to the emperor, _and _I heard that he was looking for an assistant. Just think whoever gets that position will have direct dealings with the emperor himself!" she made her eyes wide and innocent looking, trying to act as if she wasn't throwing him a line.

"An assistant you say?" Octavius had his thinking face on. He looked rather like a constipated pig with a greasy beard.

"Why yes Octavius, hadn't you heard?" It was all lies of course, the senator was coming, but Flavia was positive he didn't want an assistant, at least, not one called Octavius. "Hmm," he mused, stroking the oily tuft of hair he called a beard, "maybe I should make my way to town immediately…yes, I should…someone with an understanding of politics should greet him, …someone such as myself, definitely, I must get ready, I must…" He muttered all this to himself in low monotone, and then began walking off, preening and straightening his toga as he did so. And so… he completely forgot Flavia. Ha! She thought, he took the bait: hook, line and sinker. He was so stupid. It made her smile as she watched the sunset falling behind the waves of the sea.

* * *

She sat for another couple of minutes, savouring the last vestiges of heat from the day and listened to the soft, rhythmic sounds of the waves crashing against the shore. Everything was so peaceful and in no time at all Flavia found herself lying on her back gazing up at the constellations, stars winking back at her. She could see Orion and the Great Bear and wondered how it would feel to see them close up, away from all the troubles that life on Earth gave her. For a while Flavia forgot everything to do with Octavius and the reasons he had come back home and she forgot all about the imminent arrival of the senator. Instead she floated in the hazy moments between wake and sleep and imagined she was able to fly among the stars. Her brother had always said that her dreams were childish, but Flavia knew, as she relaxed on the shore, that perhaps she was the older one mentally, as she knew what was important in life. More so than her brother seemed to. He believed that standing and money were the most important things in life, but didn't he realised those things were nothing? They could disappear in an instant. She knew that you could lose family and loved ones too, but she believed that they were still in you somewhere. And that was all that mattered.

Flavia lay like that for that for a time, totally engrossed in her thoughts and dreams. Time passed without her notice until a strange noise rang in her ears, a sort of "whoomping" sound (whatever that was), completely at odds with the calming music of the waves. At the same time a discordant wind blew up, throwing Flavia's brown locks across her face. She sat up quickly and cast an alarmed glance around the beach. What on earth could be causing that noise? She scrambled to her feet eyes narrowed as she tried to see in the dark. As far as she could tell nothing on the beach was causing the noise, however, behind one of the dunes a bright blue light flashed. All of a sudden the wind and noise died down, the blue light becoming less noticeable. Instead the area where all the ruckus had been coming from was now bathed in a soft blue glow. Flavia's heart beat with terror and excitement. Finally! Something interesting! She crept over to the now _very_ mysterious dune, careful to regulate her breathing and trying _very_ hard not to nudge the pebbles too much with her feet. Maybe this was it, she thought, a sign _something_ was going to happen, rather than the _nothing_ that had taken up practically her whole sixteen years. As she crawled up the slope she recalled all the stories of the Gods that she had been taught throughout her life, stories of Jupiter, King of the Gods, Minerva, the Goddess of wisdom, and so many more. Had all this been some staging of the God's arrival? Whoever it was wasn't keeping it down, Flavia noted, she could hear wood bang on wood (_what was that?)_, then a slow steady crunch of pebbles as the being walked away. When the steps had finally become distant and quiet, Flavia dared to risk a look over the top of the dune, slowly inching upwards so she could see.

Then she wondered whether it _really_ was the Gods. Because she was sure that they didn't arrive in blue wooden boxes.

* * *

_hahahaha...Cliffhanger(ish)!......please review!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

* * *


End file.
